You are here

Home and Garden

We've been hearing that the EL skunk population is unusually high this year, and seeing evidence in our gardens. ELi's Paige Filice explains possible reasons for the high numbers, and what you can do to avoid smelly situations.

The Marble Garden began because two first-grade teachers wanted to see something besides brick and grass outside their classroom windows. ELi's Coleen Moyerbrailean has the scoop on how that garden has grown in 25 years.

The City of East Lansing recently commissioned an inventory of its urban trees funded by a grant from the Department of Natural Resources. Paige Filice reports on why the City wanted the inventory, and how it will help support our urban forest.

The East Lansing Historic District Commission is now allowing property owners in historic districts to replace original exterior wood siding with cement fiberboard siding in some cases. ELi talked to Commission Chair Amanda Harrell-Seyburn to get the details.

With summer headed toward East Lansing, we will be seeing more and more green outdoors. If you want to add a touch of green to the indoors - without extensive care - terrariums are a great way to add a low maintenance garden to any space.

Don’t let your black thumb steer you away from trying a terrarium. There are plants that even the most inexperienced gardeners won’t be able to kill.

Monday (May 2, 2016) marks the last no-fee yard waste pick-up for East Lansing this spring, so today we’re bringing you information about yard-waste management with the help of Cathy DeShambo, Environmental Services Administrator for the City, including an answer to an ELi reader’s question about why yard waste pick-up is not free as the pick-up of refuse and recycling is.

Photo of a snowdrop flower with a honeybee in the author's East Lansing yard this past weekend

This past Friday’s equinox marked the beginning of the astronomical spring season, although usually it takes the climate of East Lansing a couple of weeks to catch up to the calendar. But the warm days of the last couple of weeks have brought on some spring blooms to coincide with the appearance of spring on this year’s calendar.

The weather of this last weekend led many East Lansing gardeners to break out their gardening tools for some planting and spring garden cleanup. A quick walk through some westside neighborhoods reveals that folks are beginning to use their parkways as an interesting gardening opportunity. A parkway is the land between the sidewalk and the street. Homeowners own the parkway and have the responsibility and the right to maintain the land, while the City has right of access to the parkway.

We can never be sure, but it seems to be spring in East Lansing. With spring comes gardening, and the City of East Lansing is inviting gardeners of all skill levels to participate in a volunteer gardening day at the East Lansing Hannah Community Center (ELHCC), 819 Abbot Road, this Saturday, April 23, from 9 a.m.-noon.